Power

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever, Amen. The Lord's Prayer.

The final sentence of the Lord's Prayer acknowledges that power belongs to God more than it belongs to the one who prays to God. It is power that we have a problem relinquishing, and power that we consider our right as free people. It is power that complicates every human relationship, and power that makes us reckless to the point of death. If we think that power is a right, rather than "an endowment" (Declaration of Independence), we endanger more lives than our own.

The Coronavirus has seized power from people around the globe. There is no need to claim it is a God-sent pandemic, but it certainly is a test of our ability to yield power by curtailing our social activity. In the United States and Brazil we are flunking this test, because we consider ourselves free and invulnerable people. We do not understand that power is provisional. We must be ready to yield it at any time. We must discover humility and self-discipline or perish. At the very least, we must realize that we have power to harm others by transmitting the virus, even without our knowledge or conscious intent.
In the United States we have a peculiar relationship with freedom. We think we can to do what we want, and many of us do not want to wear masks or stand six feet apart. We make it a Constitutional issue, when it is a moral issue. We have First Amendment rights and supposedly that gives us the right to risk our health and endanger the health of others. Rather we have a moral obligation to others. We are "our brother's keeper."

It is reminiscent of the freedom to arm ourselves, to carry weapons sufficient to annihilate any enemy. We think the Second Amendment guarantees our right to wield semi-automatic weapons, and we expose law enforcement officers to mentally deranged people with  much more firepower than the police force has. Yes, we are free to do this, but should we assume such power?

It is reminiscent of our freedom to burn fossil fuels without control of their emissions.  We are currently witnessing the cleansing of the air, because of a pause in industry and in driving to earn and to spend.  We have the potential to sustain clean air by giving up our power to burn coal and the power to drive cars without control of their emissions. We have the possibility of passing a carbon tax, of investing in solar and wind power. But it all begins with yielding power to burn and drive whatever we want.

It is reminiscent of our power in the pursuit of happiness. Our dependence on social gathering to eat, to drink, to dance, even to worship has been challenged by the shelter-in-place ordinances. Surely we are allowed these minor indulgences, and surely we are allowed to assume our own risks by going to a restaurant, a concert, a sporting event? But even the power to pursue happiness has risks, risks that go beyond our health to the health of the elderly and the physically vulnerable. Do we care about them enough to curb our own power to party?

Baseball, the national past time is about to resume under severe restrictions: no on-site fan attendance, no high fives or chest  bumps, no participation after a positive test, symptomatic or not. Do professional athletes have the discipline to change the social customs of the game over night? Can they play with exuberance absent the cheering crowds, absent the physical contact, absent the instant gratification that sparked them in the past? Was the pursuit of happiness ever so restricted?

Freedom is never an end in itself. Freedom includes the freedom to yield power, to accept limitations, to respect the vulnerable and the weak. It is about yielding power, if not to God then to the state, to an employer, to our subdued conscience that needs our attention.  When we hoard our power, we take control of what we do not truly own. We are free to party, to crowd, to pollute the air, to accumulate military weapons. But should we?

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.
Amen.

Bill Tucker

Photo by Samantha Sophia on Unsplash